The Little Brown Jug

The Little Brown Jug sounds like something you would find in the back of your kitchen cabinet. Unlike most containers, Delaware’s “Little Brown Jug” is one of the most coveted prizes in harness racing. The race takes place annually on the third Thursday in September as part of the Delaware County Fair. The race began in 1946 at the Delaware County Fairgrounds. Approximately, 37 thousand people were in the crowd for the first race. The popularity of the race continued to grow and in 1956 the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers announced that the Little Brown Jug would be one leg of the accomplishment. The name was derived from a newspaper contest in the mid-1940′s. The horse which wins the race has their name glazed on a large brown jug. In 2005, the jug ran out of space and a 2nd brown jug was constructed. Today, over 50 thousand people come out to see the event. The Little Brown Jug also holds the record for the largest attended race is harness racing history (56,000).